Rushing to the Rescue
by HK7747
Summary: Written for the School of Prompts challenge! After being locked into a marriage contract with Astoria Greengrass in the summer, Draco has to deal with some of the fallout.


"Is it true, Draco?" Blaise Zabini asked, one morning as the sixth year Slytherins got ready for the day.

"What, Zabini?" Draco responded a little irately. "There's a lot of rumours going around, as I'm sure you know. So, I'm afraid you're going to have to be a little more specific if you'd like the prospect of an answer."

"That your parents agreed a marriage contract with the Greengrasses for you and Astoria Greengrass," Blaise clarified.

"Oh, that's made its way around the Hogwarts rumour mill, has it?" Draco asked.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Well, consider me surprised. That _was_ supposed to remain a secret, so I honestly don't know how that one snuck in…" Draco admitted.

"Wait, so it is true?"

"Yeah," Draco answered nonchalantly, before exiting the dorm room.

On his way out of the Slytherin common room, he caught sight of Astoria. She was in a corner of the common room with a few of her friends. It appeared they were waiting for another of their number to get ready before they set out for the day.

Their eyes met across the room, and Draco tilted his head in her direction almost imperceptibly in greeting. She smiled slightly in acknowledgment before she refocused on her friends' conversation.

By this point, Zabini along with Crabbe and Goyle had caught up with him. As a unit, they exited the common room and wound their way through the hallways in the direction of the Great Hall.

"I'm sure I don't need to stress to you the importance of secrecy with regards to this new revelation, Zabini," Draco said quietly.

"Of course, Draco," Zabini replied firmly.

"Good."

It was at this point that they entered the Great Hall, which was a little empty at this point. They hardly broke stride as they trooped over to the Slytherin table and they plopped down in their usual stretch of the table, at the identical spots they usually occupied.

"What do we have first today?" Goyle grunted, ever forgetful of their class schedule.

"History of Magic," Zabini provided.

They all groaned at the information. Draco had known, but hearing the confirmation reminded him of the mind-numbing boredom he was about to endure.

 _This is going to be a long day,_ Draco thought darkly.

"Merlin's left sock, I thought that day would never end!" Draco protested as he unceremoniously flopped face-first into his favourite couch in the common room.

"Hullo, Greengrass," he heard Zabini greet tiredly from his armchair.

Draco froze. What was Astoria doing? They had agreed to keep their distance this year to avoid suspicions.

"Draco?" the feminine voice came, but it was not Astoria's.

Draco unearthed himself from the comfort of the leather couch to see Daphne Greengrass standing there, fidgeting a little.

"What's up, Daphne?" he asked.

"Do you mind coming with me?" she queried, which told Draco this had to be a matter to do with Astoria. The nervous undercurrent to her voice was not promising.

He followed her out of the common room and to an abandoned dungeon classroom. Once they locked the door and put up silencing charms, Daphne turned to face him.

"Have you seen Astoria today?" she asked, getting right to the point.

"Only in the morning, on the way to breakfast," Draco admitted, growing a little worried about where Daphne might be going with this.

"I was supposed to meet up with her after dinner to floo call our parents," Daphne admitted, biting her lip. "None of her friends know where she is."

Draco tried to focus, thinking back through his day, if he had possibly seen her after breakfast.

"When was the last time you saw her?" he asked.

"I saw her after last class, we were about to come back to the common room to put our books away and then head to dinner together when Pansy asked to talk to her," Daphne explained, then her head shot up. "Pansy."

Draco put the pieces together just as quickly. Pansy made no secret of her feelings toward Draco, and hadn't taken their split at the beginning of term very well. If the rumour of the contract had made the rounds of the castle…

Daphne quickly cancelled the privacy charms they'd set up and began storming her way back to the common room.

She made a determined beeline towards the girls' dormitory stairs, even pushing and hexing any unfortunate Slytherins that had strayed into her path.

Everyone in the common room had stopped and waited intently after Daphne's dramatic entrance. The silence was interrupted as a loud _BANG_ resounded through the dungeon, followed by a blood-curdling scream that was no doubt Pansy's.

The common room entrance opened and Professor Snape came billowing in with a purposeful stride. How he'd made it there so quickly, no one would ever know. He disappeared up the staircase only to come down with the same purposeful march and blank stare, with both Daphne and a sobbing Pansy in tow.

As Daphne passed Draco, she whispered, "Forbidden Forest, hurry."

Draco needed no further prompting, as he slipped out of the common room shortly after the excitement died down, slinking stealthily through the halls as he snuck his way out of the castle.

* * *

 _This better make for a damn good story someday,_ Draco thought sourly

After his previous experience in the Forbidden Forest in his first year, Draco swore he would never set foot in the Forest again, apart from the quick forays in with Care of Magical Creatures class. Even those had been into shallow pockets of the Forest, close to the tree line.

All that, and yet here Draco found himself, once more in the depths of the Forbidden Forest, in the dead of night. His nerves were frayed by this point, with nothing more than the light of his wand to guide him; Draco had nearly jumped out of his skin a good dozen times already.

He dared not call out Astoria's name, for fear of giving his position away to some of the less pleasant occupants of the Forest.

What possessed the board of governors to continue sanctioning the preservation of this tree-laden death trap was beyond Draco. He reasoned that it probably had to do with the preservation of sentient magical species and some such drivel, but the Forest still posed a very realistic threat to the safety of the students.

Warn students as they may, the warning was easy bait for the basic human nature to defy cryptic warnings.

Just how long he had been in the Forest up until now, Draco could only guess. The tree canopy was so thick overhead that Draco couldn't even glance at the night sky in a futile effort to apply his rudimentary Astronomy knowledge to time-keeping use.

He was cursing himself for what seemed like the thousandth time that night when he came to a clearing. The canopy had opened up here and moonlight had obliged to shine down a column of silvery light to illuminate the clearing.

What Draco saw in the clearing made his blood run cold. A group of about six or seven centaur had cornered Astoria, pawing at the ground in agitation.

"What is your business here, human?!" the one in the center roared.

Astoria cowered into the trunk of the giant tree behind her, as though she wanted to shrink away and disappear from the world.

"Leave her alone!" Draco shouted out, trying to infuse non-existent confidence and strength into his voice.

That certainly got the centaurs' attention, as they all wheeled around to face him.

"Another human, come to trespass on the sacred centaur groves of the Forest. All other creatures of this land respect the sanctity of this grove, but you arrogant humans traipse in here as though the world belongs to you. Too often has this happened," the lead centaur growled.

"Listen, this is purely accidental, us stumbling into your grove," Draco stammered, wanting to defuse the situation. "She was tricked into coming into the Forest by a housemate of ours out of jealousy. I followed her in to ensure her safety. She is my intended, due to a marriage contract our parents drew up this summer. Please, we just got lost in the Forest. We never come in here normally, so we don't know our way around here. We couldn't have knowingly come to this grove, and certainly not with the intention of disturbing its sanctity. I implore of you, let us go. We mean no harm whatsoever to you or your kind," Draco begged, stowing his wand away in his pocket for a show of good faith.

The speech and the removal of the wand from the equation seemed to sway the centaurs. Their stances became much more passive.

"It is not in my nature to trust the words of a human," the leader began apprehensively. "However, you stowing your wand away is a fairly convincing show of peaceful intentions. A potentially costly gamble, mind you, and it shows an impressive amount of nerve."

"Thank you," Draco said, with a respectful incline of his head. He had, of course, learned better respect towards magical creatures since his brazen encounter with a certain Hippogriff. "What might your name be, if I may ask?"

"Orion," the centaur grunted out, his human chest puffing with pride.

"A worthy name, if I may say so. I am Draco Malfoy, and my intended is Astoria Greengrass," he replied, motioning to Astoria, who had since perked up from her position at the tree in rapt attention at the exchange.

"Well met, young Draco," Orion said. "I suggest you collect Miss Greengrass and make your way back to the castle with haste. This Forest is not a pleasant place for wizards in plain daylight, and nighttime is infinitely worse. From this grove, you are to head north-east. There you will find your castle."

"Many thanks, Orion," Draco responded, walking over to Astoria quickly and helping her to her feet. "May your prey continue to fall to your bow," he added with another incline of his head.

Orion was taken aback by Draco's use of an ancient formal centaur greeting.

"May the stars forever guide you home," he returned.

"If there is ever anything I may help you with, feel free to ask, and House Malfoy shall provide you with it," Draco promised, truthfully.

"I will bear that in mind, young Draco."

With that, Draco and Astoria began to make their way back to the castle, with Astoria providing light as Draco made liberal use of the 'Point-Me' spell.

"You really are full of surprises, aren't you?" Astoria asked, as they reached the tree line and emerged some hundred feet near Hagrid's Hut.

Draco remained silent.

"Draco, I'm so sorry for pulling you into this," Astoria apologized sadly.

"Astoria, you don't need to apologize," Draco muttered quietly.

"Why's that? I got myself baited into a dangerous situation and need you to come save me, putting yourself at risk in the process."

"You wouldn't have been in that situation if it hadn't been for my crazy ex," Draco countered. "Tori, I was so afraid, I swore an oath to your parents that I would ensure your safety. To think that I'd failed…"

"Was that your first time in the Forest? Outside of Magical Creatures classes, I mean," Astoria asked, changing subjects slightly.

"No, second. Did I ever tell you about my detention in first year?"


End file.
